The Works of the Rev. Jonathan Swift/Volume 7/The Beau's Reply

by Jonathan Swift

THE BEAU'S REPLY

TO THE

FIVE LADIES ANSWER.

WHY, how now dapper Black,
I smell your gown and cassock,
As strong upon your back,
As Tisdal^[1] smells of a sock.

To write such scurvy stuff!
Fine ladies never do't;
I know you well enough,
And eke your cloven foot.

Fine ladies, when they write,
Nor scold, nor keep a splutter:
Their verses give delight,
As soft and sweet as butter.

But Satan never saw
Such haggard lines as these:
They stick athwart my maw,
As bad as Suffolk cheese.

1. A clergyman in the North of Ireland, who had made proposals of marriage to Stella.